We've Got System Skirts - And We're Not Afraid to Use Them
Posted by Gidge Uriza
In the middle of a shoot the other night Cajsa and I both got the group notice that there was about to be a fashion show – in approximately 30 minutes. We decided we would finish up the shoot and then slip into something LOW ARC yet fashionably acceptable, and roll over to see the show. It was designer we both adore so we were really looking forward to it.
28 minutes and 147 hairstyles reviewed by Cajsa later we were dressed and ready to go. So we pop over to the show.
Girly Girls
I was sporting 364 ARC and Cajsa was 251. We were fairly proud of ourselves for peeling it down that low. Imagine our surprise when it appeared that not one other person in the room had done so. 1500,2500, 4000+ ARC’s were lagging the joint up so bad I was stunned. Seriously – did you just show up to a FASHION SHOW where we know lag is going to be a challenge, with a 4000 ARC?
Perhaps it’s lack of education? Okay then, school is in session.
All Classes Are Mandartory and No Absences Will Be Excused
Your ARC = your AVATAR RENDERING COST. It is essentially a measurement of how much lag YOU are causing OTHER people with all the stuff you have attached to your AV. Clothing which attaches increases your ARC. What to do? Here is what we, the self appointed ARC police suggest if you need to lower your ARC.
- Wear system clothes. Many designers, Poison Candy comes to mind but there are MANY others, have skirts and other items which are SYSTEM vs prim attachments. Wearing system clothes and shoes can really lower your ARC.
- Check out your hair. Turn on your Rendering Cost so it’s visible – go to ADVANCED – RENDERING and then it’s in the Information tab I believe – and yours and everyone elses ARC will show up above your head. Then, roll through your hair styles – find the one that equals the lowest ARC when on your body and use that one for high lag areas.
- Do the same thing with your SHOES – shoes that are really fantastic and intricate can be HELL on ARC.
- Create a low ARC outfit that looks pretty and you can throw on in a moments notice – SAVE it in appearance mode, name it something you’ll remember (choose MAKE OUTFIT and check ALL the boxes except renaming the items – unless you wanna do that).
- Be aware of times when low ARC is helpful and of times that it is expected. BUSY shopping areas – LOW ARC can help out. Fashion shows and big events – often low ARC is really expected.
These are just ideas ……but they can help everyone else out – and if you are helping them out, maybe they will help you out too.
The Next Person Who Shows Up To a Runway Show with ARC of 4k I will kill with a spoon.
Class dismissed. There will be a quiz on Friday.
Click Here if you would like to see some more shots of what low ARC can look like.
All Photos by Cajsa Lilliehook of MDR Photo Studios
Fashion Details CAJSA
- Skin – Slink Isabelle MakeUp 5
- Eyes – IC Eyes Soulful Hazel
- Lashes – Cybernetic
- Nails – Skin Deep
- Hair – Hair Solutions Elite Bob
- Dress – Little Rebel Green Tea Cocktail Dress
- Scarf – Nonna Hedges
- Shoes – Tesla Vixen II Asparagus
Fashion Details GIDGE
- Shape – Gidge Custom Shape by Hatchy Mills
- Skin – PXL Crys Dark Eyes Passion Lips
- Hair – Frangipani Designs – Madison – Champagne
- Eyes – FNKY – Purple Rain
- Dress and Leggins – WIG WAM BAM – Sweater Dress NOIR
- Boots – Zenith Long Boots 04 – Don’t Ask
- Earrings – Petal Meg Dahlia Resined
- Nails – Bare Rose Freebie Black Nails
I am sure it was not 147 – though I confess I tried on a lot to find a low ARC one. I am going to make myself a Low-ARC hair folder
A notecard with this information should be sent out at every fashion show and large SL event (hair fair, jewelry expo, etc.). People are often told to help reduce lag, but many seem to think that means not wearing a face light, but still slapping on a high-prim boot, extra-long flexi hair, and a prim on every appendage. Not to mention AO’s, avatar scanners, etc. I actually didn’t know about the rendering menu option. Thank you for pointing it out.
ARC is actually an index about the work your PC/Graphics card has to do, not about what the sim has to work on. I’m rubbish in explaining, but from what I’ve read I don’t believe a low ARC would reduce the lag noticeable…but what do I know? 😉
Having said that I include the ARC in my blog just for fun, I love numbers and helmet hair! Yay!
While Tarissa’s right that ARC has nothing to do with server side lag, high ARC can affect other people’s experience by causing their computer to take additional time to render your avatar (and attachments).
I think you can also reduce viewer-side lag on your computer by adjusting the graphics settings to lower the distance at which the viewer renders other objects and avatars, but I don’t really know how well this would work at a fashion show (probably depends on where you are in relation to the runway!)
You can also make your experience more enjoyable by going to rendering and under types, deselect particles. I do that all the time when shooting clients. After umpty-eleven hundred times trying to explain how to shut off bling, I quit asking and just block particle rendering.
In other examples, your friend TP’s you to a club and asks you to vote for her, turn off the particles so you can find the damn voting board among the green fog, kisses and hearts floating round the room. Best of all, you no longer will see the flashes of bling from the crotches of silly people whose genital piercings have the bling on and radiate sparks every few minutes to announce “yes, I am a sexual being, please look at my lovely crotch.”
You can turn off fog there too if you’re in one of those annoying stores that have fog so you cannot see the true colors of the items you are looking at. Okay, so I have only been to two stores that do that, but it’s still annoying.
Whether its client side or server side a lower ARC will benefit all.
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So I found the right hair and shoes, total ARC is 85! Yay! But my real weakness is jewellery. I can leave necklaces and earrings at home, but I neeeed bracelets since the avatar has so ugly wrists. That’s really demanding. But with 2 bracelets and ARC still under 200, that’s not bad? Question: Where can I find low prim jewellery?
Paper Couture has some system layer necklaces.
A great investment for ensuring low ARC is a skin with painted-on hair. I can’t tell you how many times the skin has saved me when I didn’t have a hair that would work correctly. Sure, it looks a little odd, but it really does help, and saves the headache of finding a good looking low-ARC hair.
I like this “movement” very much. If I’m not mistaken, it’s about respecting other online users, especially at parties and events. Would it be a good idea to form an in-world group that we can join to support this movement? And as group members we could wear a tag about this low-ARC thingy… a kind of slogan… and the group would be in our Profile so that other avatars could check it and get info about it…
Hera, I like the idea of people voluntarily making an effort to lower their ARC and also like event organizers to send out info about how to lower ARC before events so folks can have a better experience. I even could see the value of a low ARC group sharing where to find low ARC hair/shoes, system jewelry, etc…..but there are so many groups and there’s such potential for it to become a Mean Girls thing. It would have to be carefully thought out and planned so that ARC is not something to beat someone about the head with.
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